Olivia's Portrait Session

I’ve been doing family portraits for several years and I love to create memories for families. Recently, however, I saw a photographer speak about doing portraiture and just knew it was for me. Have you ever had that experience? When you saw or tried something and you knew instantly in your soul that you needed to pursue it? That you felt so aligned with the possibility that you didn’t think to worry about whether or not you could, the logistics, or possible failure? I knew that studio portraiture was the path for me so set about building my studio and working on my portfolio.

Olivia was my first experience with taking studio portraits. Not only is Olivia beautiful but she loves being photographed. She enjoyed having makeup applied by professional makeup artist Betsy Hansen, who also took the extra time to give her lessons. She was incredibly natural in front of the camera and great at taking direction.

What I love about young teens is that they are so unguarded. With the right direction, it doesn’t take much to get them to look natural. There is so much untarnished potential, aspiration and eagerness in their eyes. I love capturing that and I think that’s what makes them so beautiful.

What I love about young teens is that they are so unguarded. With the right direction, it doesn’t take much to get them to look natural. There is so much untarnished potential, aspiration and eagerness in their eyes. I love capturing that and I think that’s what makes them so beautiful.

As an aside, I love Olivia’s freckles. That’s a universal truth when it comes to photographers…kind of like how photographers love taking pictures of old barns. I really tried to capture Olivia’s different sides which combined makes up her essence. What do you think?